Coastal CU pledges $2M to CUNA's national awareness campaign

Coastal Credit Union has committed $2 million to the Credit Union National Association’s “Open Your Eyes” awareness campaign.

Coastal’s donation arrives two months after CUNA announced the initiative, which aims to raise $100 million over the next three years to promote and sustain a national branding efforts for credit unions nationwide.

“Coastal has enjoyed tremendous success from an assertive branding and marketing strategy over the past several years,” Joe Mecca, Coastal’s vice president of communication, said in a statement. “We’d love to see our peers large and small benefit from a similar effort at the industry level.”

CUNA expects the bulk of the funding for the campaign to come from credit unions and other industry groups such as credit union service organizations. The majority of Coastal’s pledge is derived from its approximate $1.6 million share of the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund equity distribution.

“If one out of every seven credit unions contributed their portion of the distribution into this collective effort, we can fully fund the entire campaign – right now,” Coastal President and CEO Chuck Purvis said in a statement.

Dan Schline, president and CEO of the Carolinas Credit Union Leauge, said the league intends to “work hand-in-hand with Coastal, CUNA and other industry leaders to make sure ‘Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union’ is a huge success for all credit unions and their members in the Carolinas.”

In an exclusive interview with Credit Union Journal earlier this summer shortly after the campaign was announced, CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle explained that CUNA’s research revealed misconceptions behind the word “member.” Though credit union members associate the word with value, those unfamiliar with the credit union movement may affiliate the word “membership” with things that cost them money, such as monthly gym memberships or satellite TV subscriptions.

CUNA’s campaign, therefore, focuses on the benefits CUs provide, raising awareness rather than soliciting individual memberships. The aim, added Nussle, is to get potential members in the door and let individual credit unions get new members across the finish line.